


Into the dragon's den

by bennysparks



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Bonding, Brothers, M/M, Stuart is honestly a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-14 08:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennysparks/pseuds/bennysparks
Summary: Every time Callum tries to imagine sprawling on Stuart's couch with Ben pressed up against him, it always ends in bloodshed as soon as Stuart walks in the door.





	1. Chapter 1

A very short princess in a pink crinoline dress is racing around the park, being chased by her father, the King of Walford. They've been taking turns as the dragon and right now  _ his majesty _ is the one roaring and waving his arms up and down like wings. 

Callum is watching from the bench. There is a bag of groceries on his left and an empty space on his right. He is only half-paying attention to the pair of them as they race around; mostly he's letting the voices and sirens and engines of the Square wash over him. It's loud but normal, calming, it anchors him to the spot. He checks the groceries for the fifteenth time; he's always paranoid that he's missing an ingredient, has to run through the list on his phone again and again even though he's checked everything off. This is his first official dinner with Lexi, after all. Ben spent the entire walk to pick up Lexi from school telling him that everything was going to be fine, that Lexi already liked him—because he saved Ben's life!—before throwing up his hands up.

_ I just got out of the hospital, Cal. Let's not have you going in with an aneurysm, okay? _

Someone sits down next to Callum. He can't stop himself from tensing; mostly things have died down since the wedding and the siege but he still feels like everybody is talking about him.

"Ain't they sweet."

Callum freezes. "Stuart." If Ben has seen Callum's brother, he isn't letting on, too preoccupied with the game.

Stuart is wearing an oversized plaid button-down, spreading his arms across the back of the bench, snaking one behind Callum. If he notices Callum's tone, he doesn't say anything; Stuart has never been particularly good at picking up on signals. "You making 'em tea?"

Callum watches Ben and Lexi run past. She's chasing him now, making a flurry of hand gestures that he's pretty sure is supposed to be fire-breath. "Lexi wants spag bol."

"You know you can have him 'round to ours, right?"

Callum coughs, surprised. It isn't like Callum hasn't thought about it, especially with the sheer number of people at Ben's house. Ian keeps walking in on them in the bathroom. And Stuart  _ is _ trying to change, trying to accept who Callum really is and who Callum loves. That's why he agreed to move in with him after Whitney. Ben knows all of this, too, has mostly stopped making comments about Callum's  _ ape of a brother.  _ But every time Callum tries to imagine sprawling on Stuart's couch with Ben pressed up against him, it always ends in bloodshed as soon as Stuart walks in the door. "Can I?"

"Course! It's your flat too," Stuart says.

"I didn't think—" He clears his throat. Even with the brotherly thaw happening, he's been careful to keep Stuart and Ben away from each other—because Stuart has a history of threatening Ben, of locking him up, of  _ beating the shit out of him _ . "I didn't think you'd be comfortable with that," he says, because he doesn't really want to provoke Stuart out in the open like this, not with Lexi right there, and Ben.

"Well he's—he's—he's your fella," Stuarts says. "Gotta get used to it, don't I?"

Callum runs hands through his hair, pressing his back against the bench. Ben's spotted Stuart, is crouching down to talk quietly to Lexi but isn't looking away from Callum. "Maybe," he says, because Callum Highway is always hedging his bets.

"But you ain't gonna," Stuart says.

"I just don't know if it's a good idea," Callum says. 

Stuart huffs, quietly, rolling his lips together. He holds up a hand, nodding at Ben. "You awright, Mitchell?" Like nothing has ever happened between them, like he didn't corner Ben in the Arches months ago.

"Awright," Ben says in response. He is very careful to stand between Lexi and the bench. He scrapes a hand over his mouth and Callum tries not to think blood caked into the corners because of Stuart back in the summer. Ben tilts his head. "Everything sweet, Cal?"

"Uh," Callum says.

Stuart clears his throat, and he's smiling. Callum wishes Stuart didn't always look a bit when he smiles, glazed over. "Our boy here," Stuart says, and slaps Callum's shoulder, "says you're doing tea together for this little sweetheart."

"We're having spaghetti," Lexi says; she has been listening very carefully, and it occurs to Callum that he doesn't know what she's heard about Stuart, if he ever comes up when Callum isn't around.

"Is that right?"

Lexi nods. "It's my favourite."

"That's right," Ben says. He is talking very slowly. He has that  _ daddy  _ lilt in his voice right now, but that doesn't mean he isn't ready if things kick off.

"Well," Stuart says. "Back at ours, there's only the two of us, if you wanted a change of pace."'

"Do what?"

If things were different, watching Ben trying to process the conversation would be  _ hysterical. _ As it is, he's pretty sure Ben is trying very hard to not tell Stuart to go fuck himself in front of Lexi. "We don't have to," Callum says.

"Me and Lexi," says Ben, drawing the words out. "Having tea at your flat. With both of you."

"That's right," Stuart says. "Seeing how maybe one day you'll be my brother-in-law, figure I should get to know you."

Ben looks startled. They have been very careful about taking it slow, mostly because Callum has to do a lot—a lot!—of catching up, but to have Stuart Highway of all people use the words  _ brother-in-law.  _ "I take it back," Ben says to Callum. "Maybe  _ I'm _ going to have the aneurysm."

"You just got out of hospital," Callum says, almost without meaning to. "Don't joke about that."

Ben rolls his eyes.

"Does that sound good, Lex?" Stuart leans forward. "Want to see where Callum lives? We could make a blanket fort after dinner."

"Okay," says Lexi, carefully. "But it has to be a dragon's den."

Stuart grins. "Proper treasure and everything."

Callum is standing up without meaning to, is halfway over to Ben. "Ben?"

"I feel like I'm in an alternate universe," Ben says.

Callum sighs. "Right there with you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Don't worry. It means you're Frankenstein's other, handsome monster and I'm the wolfman—"

Ben is standing in the cramped kitchen of Callum's flat, watching his boyfriend quietly have a panic attack. Callum is bouncing back and forth, pulling ingredients from the shopping bags on the counter and extracting pots from the lower cabinets. He isn't looking at Ben. He isn't talking to Ben, either, leaving Ben to listen to the sounds of Callum's brother helping Lexi erect a blanket fort in the front room.

The problem is that they can't  _ both _ be having panic attacks at the same time, and Ben currently feels just a smidge more entitled. "Callum," he says, while Callum fills one pot with water at the sink. 

Callum puts the pot of water on the back element.

"Cal," Ben says. In the other room, Lexi shrieks and he has to stop himself from panicking.

Callum fishes out two jars of tomato-basil sauce and sets them on the counter beside the stove.

Ben clears his throat and then he says "Halfway," in the most convincing imitation of Mick Carter that he's ever done.  _ That _ makes Callum freeze and Ben winces because he wishes he hadn't done it; they keep backsliding when things get rough. Callum shuts down, gets quiet and distant while Ben—Ben always,  _ always _ ends up winding him up.

Callum still hasn't moved. "Did you just—?"

"Apparently." Ben lifts his head again, takes a step closer to his boyfriend without touching him. Callum doesn't like it when Ben turns everything into a joke and as a rule, Ben never calls him by that nickname. It doesn't feel right, calling him by that nickname. "I'm sorry," Ben says. "I'm a little on edge right now." Careful not to touch him in the tiny space, Ben shuffles around until they're facing each other. "The last time I actually spoke to Frankenstein's monster in there, he was barging into  _ my _ kitchen to tell me not to come to your wedding—or else."

"Ben."

"Don't worry. It means you're Frankenstein's other,  _ handsome _ monster and  _ I'm _ the wolfman—"

"Ben!"

"I have to sit across from him over tea with my daughter in the same room and act like nothing happened. It's a lot to take in, okay?"

Callum looks down at his feet. He nods. "This was probably too soon."

"I could be trying to leave," Ben says. "I could have battered him back at the park." He gnaws at his thumbnail. They still are touching; there's barely an inch between them but Ben can really feel it right now. "Paul wouldn't have let me. He'd lay down the law right away." Something shifts in the air between them and Callum rolls back on his heels. They both have ghosts, ghosts they love. They're still figuring that part out. "I didn't—I ain't comparing you," Ben says.

"I know," Callum says, clearly on autopilot, clearly not believing it. He's looking away.

"It's just something Jay said the other day. He said that I've been different lately. Calmer. He says it reminds him of how I was when Paul was—when I was with Paul." It came up because they'd been sitting in the salon, waiting for Lola to finish up so that they could all head over to the house to eat dinner with Kathy and Lexi, and Ben had made a comment about Paul leaving his number in Ben's jacket that first day. "Jay says I need somebody to remind me that I don't have to try to be Phil Mitchell."

That earns him a laugh. Ben laces their fingers together. "You are definitely not Phil Mitchell," Callum says, and then he envelopes Ben, squeezing him like he's confirming he's still there. He does that after a fight, like he keeps expecting Ben to disappear. "Stu  _ is _ trying to be better about—about—"

"I know. And we were gonna have to deal with this at some point." There is a sound like a rhinoceros stampeding behind them. "Hello, Lexi."

And then Stuart clears his throat from the doorway. There is a moment when Callum starts to pull away but Ben squeezes his arms around Callum's waist. He gets to have boundaries too.

"The noble  _ dragon princess Alexandra _ wanted to check on the royal cooks," Stuart says.

"We do apologize, your majesty," Ben says.

"Daddy," Lexi says. "Are you and Callum being mushy?"

"Oh, extremely." Ben slowly releases Callum and turns, watching both of them. He doesn't know how to read Stuart—there is something tightly coiled about him, the potential to snap—and so he puts himself very carefully between Callum and his brother, almost without thinking about it.

"I was telling  _ her majesty _ that our Callum used to love building blanket forts when we was little," Stuart says. "She wanted to show him our handiwork."

"Yes!" Lexi darts forward, pulling at Callum's wrist. Callum looks confused, and Ben can only imagine his mere presence will probably make the blanket fort collapse on top of him. "C'mon Callum, you have to come see!"

"I'll help your daddy with the spaghetti," Stuart says, clapping his brother on the back as Lexi drags him past. Callum looks awkwardly back at Ben, who is suddenly left alone with Stuart Highway. Stuart is standing between him and the door. "Figured we should have a talk."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Our old man," says Stuart.
> 
> "Met him. Real charmer, that one."

Ben and Stuart stare at each other from either side of the kitchen. "So this is cozy," Ben says. He tries not to focus on the sound of Callum giggling back and forth with Lexi in the other room, because then he won't be on his guard. His boyfriend is playing with his daughter and he doesn't really get to sit and enjoy that, because he has to stare down his boyfriend's psycho brother. "Normally you'd be threatening me by now."

"We need to make the tea," Stu says, stepping around Ben before opening the jars of sauce and emptying them into a sauce pan.

"I thought you wanted to talk."

Stuart is dumping herbs into the sauce without any apparent strategy and very clearly grinding his teeth. It is hard to look at him and not feel like he's seeing Phil Mitchell as a young man, down to the bald head. It's hard for Ben not to let his entire body go rigid.

"Our old man," says Stuart.

"Met him. Real charmer, that one."

"Our old man told me I had to keep my brother on the—straight and narrow." Stuart reaches out and grasps a wooden spoon from a stand next to the stove. "He thought Callum was soft, you know. He was always on him, unless I was getting between them."

"Okay." Ben crosses his arms while Stuart turns on the water to boil. He keeps expecting something to happen; it is hard to read Stuart. With Callum, he's starting to nail down all the moods, the panics, the triggers. But Stuart—"And, what? I'm a threat to him staying on the, on the  _ straight and narrow,  _ then?"

"Our old man is a piece of shit," Stuart says. 

"No argument here."

"And—and—my brother—"

Oh god, Ben almost wants to say, is Stuart Highway having a feeling? But he doesn't say that, because Callum is in the next room with Lexi, and he's remembering how to be gentle, when Lexi is involved. When Callum's involved, too.

"He could have died in there, you know?"

"I know," Ben says. Because he  _ does _ think about it, all the other ways that day in the pub could have gone. If Whitney had outed Callum in front of everyone in a rage. If she hadn't walked in on them in the first place. If Hunter had shot Ben's sister, or Sonia, or Phil  _ bloody  _ Mitchell too. If he'd shot Callum. "I'm glad the bullet ended up in me."

Stuart doesn't look up from the sauce. "I am, too."

"Here we go…"

"I know I'm not, like, quick." 

Ben squints. There are moments when Stuart reminds him of Phil, yes, but then there are other moments—

"And afterwards, I kept thinking that it  _ could _ have been Callum, it could have been him on the floor and we weren't good before then, because of  _ you _ and—everything. He wouldn't even let me be best man."

If Stuart Highway starts crying in front of him, Ben is going to give up altogether.

"And we're sitting in the caff the next day, and he's tearing himself up because the hospital won't tell him how you are." Stuart sounds ragged, looks like he's holding onto the stove to keep himself upright. If this was a different person—Callum or Jay or Lola or Billy or Lou—Ben would reach out. But he isn't about to help Stuart with anything, no matter what he's saying, even if he thought he could predict the reaction. "He's going absolutely mental because the hospital won't tell him nothing, but he couldn't actually say  _ it,  _ you know?"

"Say what?"

"The word. It didn't seem as important after—after almost losing him. I didn't—I don't understand it, but I needed to know, right? When he told me before, he just said you were more than mates, but he couldn't say the word and all I could think of was my old man screaming at him."

From the other room, Callum shouts "Oi," and Ben can't stop the smile this time, because Lexi is probably giving him lip.

"And I used to think you was just messing him about, that it was about converting him," Stuart says. "But lately—I've been keeping my distance, haven't I, because I don't want to upset him. And I've seen you with him. And I think, yeah, I think if he  _ had _ been the one that got—got—well, you would have been holding his head and talking to him."

"Course I would have."

"He's all I got," Stuart says. It is unnerving to hear him talk like this, to realize that Stuart sounds more or less the same whether he's being something like sweet or when he's beating your head in. "I ain't having our old man around neither of us, and you've got his back." Stuart takes a breath. "Can you look after the sauce for a minute? I gotta—I gotta take a slash."

"Uh," says Ben. "Yeah? Sure. Whatever."

"Thanks, mate," Stuart says.

He shoves his way out of the kitchen, and Ben is left to listen to the bubbling sauce and the boiling water. He starts to hunt through the shopping bags. He feels like he's stumbled into some parallel universe. Does pasta work the same in this universe?

"Ben?" Callum is hovering in the doorway now, looking up and down the kitchen like he expects there to be blood on the walls, or pasta sauce. "You okay in here? Stuart—"

"I'm fine?" Ben holds out an arm and Callum shuffles over. He still looks a little uncomfortable having Ben  _ here _ , like he isn't totally sure how to piece together two parts of his life— but it's not like Ben is unfamiliar with the sensation. But Callum is solid and extremely tall and pressing into Ben's side, so it's seems less important now. "I honestly couldn't tell you what just happened. Right up there with  _ Phil Mitchell _ saying you was family, back at the hospital."

"You know," Callum says, leaning down to kiss Ben's neck. "Everything you said about coming out—making things clearer, or less confusing? Some of the  _ most _ convincing lying you've ever done."


End file.
